


Nights are best shared

by That_is_right



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Bucky Barnes Needs a Hug, Bucky Barnes Recovering, Cuddling & Snuggling, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Established Relationship, Feels, Fluff, Kissing, Literal Sleeping Together, M/M, Nightmares, steve rogers is a sweetheart
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-27
Updated: 2019-10-27
Packaged: 2021-01-04 09:10:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,746
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21195191
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/That_is_right/pseuds/That_is_right
Summary: Nightmares aren't so bad when you've got someone to hold you afterwards.





	Nights are best shared

**Author's Note:**

> I was in the mood for some soft Stucky. There's not really any plot here. I wrote this, edited it, and posted it, all in one go. It's probably a bit of a mess. I hope you enjoy anyway!

Bucky jolted awake, flailing and gasping for air. He couldn’t remember what he had been dreaming about, couldn’t remember the nightmare that, just seconds ago, had thrown him so violently from sleep. 

Bucky wasn’t sure if that was a bad thing or not.

He took in his surroundings as his breathing slowed. White walls, grey carpet, black curtains. It was a small room. The walls were blank, and the floor was spotless. It took him a moment, but then Bucky remembered. It was his bedroom in Steve’s apartment. He was safe here, alone in this room. He was safe, but he was alone. Bucky liked being safe, but didn’t want to be alone. He pulled his duvet up with him as he stood up and left the room.

Steve’s bedroom was just across the hallway. The door was open, but Bucky hesitated in the doorway. “Steve?”

“Buck?” Steve responded, his voice still deep with sleep. “You okay?”

“Can I come in?” Bucky asked. 

“Yeah, of course.”

Bucky approached the bed and shed his duvet, dropping it on the floor. He came up to the side of the bed opposite Steve, who held the duvet up for him. Bucky slid in and exhaled heavily.

“Is everything alright, Bucky?” Steve asked, gently. 

“I had a nightmare,” Bucky admitted. 

“Can I touch you?”

“Yeah, if you want.” 

“Of course I want to, c’mere.” Steve laid on his back and patted his chest. Bucky shuffled forward and lay beside him, resting his head on Steve’s chest. He pushed his leg between Steve’s, and wrapped an arm around Steve’s middle. Steve reached up to trail his fingers slowly over Bucky’s extended arm, and threaded the fingers of his other hand through Bucky’s hair. 

“Thanks, Stevie,” Bucky sighed. 

“Anything for my best guy.” 

“You’re a sap.”

“And you love it.”

“Yeah,” Bucky breathed. “I do.”

“I love you too.” 

Bucky just smiled and snuggled closer to Steve’s bare chest. He fell asleep easily, breathing in the clean scent of the man who had always chased the loneliness and fear away. 

* * *

Bucky woke slowly to the feel of the sun on his skin. Something heavy lay across his stomach, and without opening his eyes, he brought his hand up to push it off. He brushed up against an arm, and suddenly remembered crawling into Steve’s bed in the middle of the night. Bucky opened his eyes and looked over. 

Steve was still fast asleep, cuddled up against his side. At some point, Bucky had obviously rolled off Steve, and Steve had apparently followed him. Bucky smiled at the thought. Even in their sleep, they were inseparable.

Bucky took in the man lying beside him. He was gorgeous, tall and broad and strong and brave. To anyone that didn’t know Steve personally, that hadn’t seen the depression that festered in the depths of his mind, he appeared perfect. There wasn’t an illness that could make it past the serum, or an injury that would keep him down for long. He didn’t scar, and even the worst bruises only lasted a matter of hours. 

Steven Grant Rogers was a miracle of science and nature. 

Bucky reached up to trail his fingers along Steve’s arm, pushing the blond hair up and away from his skin. Bucky watched as it curled back into place as his fingers moved past. Steve twitched and shuddered slightly, before opening his eyes. Those beautiful, baby blue eyes. Bucky would never get enough of those eyes. 

“Good morning, Buck,” Steve smiled.

“Morning,” Bucky smiled back, unable to resist the happiness in Steve’s gaze. 

“You sleep alright?”

“After I got in here with you.” 

Steve just hummed, and shuffled forward, resting his head on Bucky’s chest. They were practically a mirror image of how they’d fallen asleep just a few hours earlier. 

“I like listening to your heart,” Steve said, pressing his ear to Bucky’s chest. 

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. It reminds me that you’re real, that you’re really back here with me.” 

“Oh.” 

“I was so alone without you, Buck. When you fell, it was like I went colourblind again. I did what I had to, I kept fighting, but there was no point to anything anymore. And then they pulled me out of the ice, and I was dragged back to a world without you. That’s just the sort of world I don’t want to exist in.”

“They told me when your plane went down,” Bucky admitted. “I think they were all scared that you would burst in at any moment to rescue me. I thought you would, too. But then everyone thought you were dead, and I knew there wasn’t anyone coming for me. It’s not really the same, but I have an idea what you mean.” 

“I’ll never forgive myself for leaving you behind—”

“You didn’t leave me behind, Stevie. I should never have survived that fall, and you’d have been an idiot to go looking for me.” Bucky stroked his hand over Steve’s head as they spoke, brushing gently through his hair.

“Still doesn’t stop me from feeling like the worst friend in the world for not even trying,” Steve sniffled. Then he laughed, but it was a bitter and frustrated sound. “I’m sorry, you came to me last night, and here I am, crying about my own problems.”

“You don’t have to be perfect all the time, Stevie. We’ve both been through our own shit, we’ve both got our own issues. I want to know what’s going through your head. Let me be here for you, Steve.” 

“Just as long as you let me be here for you,” Steve retorted. 

“Always, you stubborn punk.”

“Jerk.” But Steve was smiling again, and Bucky never could resist smiling back at his Stevie. 

Steve cuddled closer into Bucky’s chest and exhaled heavily. He shifted slightly to look down at Bucky’s stomach, and Bucky couldn’t hold back a giggle at Steve trailing his fingers along the skin where his shirt had bunched up.

“This okay?” Steve asked.

“Yeah,” Bucky breathed. He shuddered whenever Steve hit a ticklish spot, or a spot that made heat build in his stomach. 

“I sleep a lot better with you here,” Steve admitted. 

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

“I get nightmares most nights,” Bucky said.

“That’s okay. I get them too, sometimes.” 

“We’re a mess, huh?” Bucky laughed, bitter again. 

“Yeah. At least we’ve got each other.” 

Bucky just hummed his agreement at that, and they lay in comfortable silence. Bucky kept moving his fingers through Steve’s hair, and Steve kept running his hand along Bucky’s stomach. 

It reminded Bucky of their time together before the war. Back in the silence of the morning, when Steve was soft and sleepy. Steve used to pretend he didn’t like cuddling as much as Bucky, but more often than not, Bucky would wake to find Steve wrapped around him like a limpet. Occasionally, Bucky would wake to find himself curled around Steve, his arms caught in a vice-like grip, held close to Steve’s chest. 

Bucky loved time with Steve, but there was nothing like lazy mornings with him. There was nothing better than lying beside him, feeling his soft skin, listening to his gentle breathing and unsteady heart. Of course, now Steve’s heart was healthy and steady, and he took up more space than Bucky did. 

Bucky missed his little Stevie, just a little bit, sometimes. He would never miss the constant illnesses and the fear that came with every winter. He would forever be grateful that Steve finally had a body that could support his scrappy, righteous soul. But sometimes, he just wanted to wrap himself around Steve and keep him safe from the pain of the world. 

“I’ve been thinking.” 

“That explains the burning smell,” Steve chuckled. 

Bucky gave him a gentle whack on the top of his head. “We always sleep better together. And I end up in here most nights, even when I start in my own bed. I was thinking, maybe I should just start going to bed with you?” Bucky finished, turning a statement into a hesitant question. 

Steve looked back up at him to smile. “I’d like that.” 

“Okay.”

“I feel like I should warn you, I can’t sleep with the curtains closed. I need to be able to see the sky.” 

“That’s okay. I like watching the stars.”

“You remember sitting out on the fire escape? Showing me the constellations?” Steve asked. 

“Yeah, I do,” Bucky smiled, then sighed. “I get real bad nightmares, Steve. I get them nearly every night. You sure you want to deal with that?”

“Bucky, I want you in any way I can get you. I am here for you, every single part of you. You don’t have to deal with this alone, anymore.”

“God, I love you,” Bucky said, and suddenly he was choking back tears.

“I love you too.”

“Can I kiss you?” Bucky asked.

His response came in the form of Steve leaning forward to do just that. Steve kissed him slowly and gently, keeping it chaste and short. When Steve leaned back and opened his eyes again, he laughed.

“I’ve been waiting so long to do that,” Steve said, grinning widely.

“You wanna do it again?”

“You bet your pretty ass I do,” Steve said, swallowing Bucky’s laugh with a kiss. Bucky lost himself in the soft skin of Steve’s lips, the warmth and wetness of them. Steve shuffled up and swung a leg over Bucky’s stomach, settling in on top of him to lean into the kiss. 

Bucky reached up to run his hands up and down Steve’s back, feeling the way that his muscles jumped and quivered beneath his hands. Bucky lost himself in the multitudes of sensation that came with kissing Steve. The damp warmth of Steve’s lips, the strong weight of Steve’s ass on his stomach, the strength of Steve’s thighs around his waist, the smooth expanse Steve’s back. Steve was everywhere, and Bucky would happily drown in him. 

Bucky’s head was spinning, and he couldn’t decide whether it was the desire coursing through him, or the lack of oxygen. Maybe it was a combination of the two. Bucky didn’t really care, it wasn’t important when he was kissing Steve. 

They broke apart with a gasp, both breathing heavily.

“This okay?” Steve asked.

“You have no idea,” Bucky replied, before diving back in for another kiss. 

And another. And another. And another. 

It was the sort of morning Bucky could get used to. 

**Author's Note:**

> Come hang out on Twitter, I'm @that_is_yeet.


End file.
